Horace Tabor - His Life and The Legend
(1981)
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Front Cover |
Book Details |
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Genre |
Biography; Non-Fiction |
Subject |
Industrialists - Colorado - Biography; Lieutenant governors - Colorado - Biography; Pioneers - Colorado - Biography; Tabor, Horace Austin Warner, 1830-1899 |
Publication Date |
1981 |
Format |
Softcover |
Publisher |
Pruett Publishing Company |
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Personal Details |
Store |
AbeBooks |
Purchase Price |
$8.99 |
Acquire Date |
8/16/2017 |
Condition |
Good/-- |
Rating |
0 |
Links |
Library of Congress
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Product Details |
LoC Classification |
F781.T322 S63 |
Dewey |
328.73/092/4 B |
ISBN |
9780871085948 |
Cover Price |
$17.50 |
No. of Pages |
395 |
First Edition |
No |
Rare |
No |
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Notes/Review |
This is the rags to riches to rags story of one of the larger than life figures in early Colorado history.
Everybody in Denver knows the Tabor name, even if they don't know anything about where the name comes from. He came from Vermont, via Kansas, and settled, eventually, in Leadville and Denver. He made is fortune in mining. That over simplifies things. He operated the general store and post office in a couple mining settlements that aren't even listed in my guide to Colorado ghost towns. His key to success was to grubstake miners who couldn't afford to pay him for the goods they bought from him.
After hitting the mining lottery, he invested his riches in all sorts of schemes and enterprises, including opera houses in Leadville and Denver. He ventured into politics, serving a term as Lt. Governor and a single month as US Senator. But politics didn't work out for him. Neither did real estate speculation, banking, newspapers, and so on.
His political career was damaged by his high profile divorce. He split with his first wife (who, it could be argued, was largely responsible for his success) to marry Baby Doe. Was she the first trophy wife? In any event, divorce wasn't done back then.
I give the book a solid 3 stars - it's not a prize winner, but does a decent job of telling the story. Includes notes, index, and bibliography. |
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